The present disclosure relates generally to semiconductor fabrication, and more particularly, to prediction of the uniformity of a wafer.
Semiconductor integrated circuits substrates such as wafers are fabricated using a plurality of wafer fabrication processes. The fabrication processes, including the processing tools necessary to perform the process, are monitored and controlled to maintain integrated circuit quality and yield. As integrated circuits reduce in size and increase in complexity, the need for monitoring various aspects of the wafer may increase. However, increased monitoring is costly in cycle time and manpower, and requires that additional metrology tools be available. One such potentially costly monitoring need includes measuring a wafer parameter at several locations on a wafer to determine the uniformity of the wafer. Wafer uniformity may vary as wafer parameters may vary, for example from the center to the edge of the wafer or from one segment of the wafer to another due to variations in the fabrication processes. Understanding the uniformity of a wafer may be important to maintaining quality, reliability, and yield standards for the wafer.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide for predicting the uniformity of a wafer.